The Champion Within
This is a series with fascinating and inspiring people, and what it takes to be the best you can at whatever your endeavours may be.
We will learn from others as to how they have handled themselves in their own pursuits, and so that we can apply to ourselves.
We’ll talk about the necessary support and how important it is, to have the best and appropriate systems around us, so that we can be the best possible. We’ll discuss aspects of ourselves that we can all develop.
This is a show with inspiring people, including musicians, artists, athletes, medical specialists, business entrepreneurs and more…in the pursuit of excellence.
I’m Jason Agosta, a health professional and former athlete, and I'm fascinated in people’s stories, my own involves developing certain attributes over time, but also things that were not done well or were significantly missing.
Join me on The Champion Within in discovering that everybody has a story, and everybody has a message.
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The Champion Within
Ep.7 Mike Blackwood: The Invigorating World of Cold Water Swimming
Brace yourself for a thrilling journey into the invigorating world of cold water swimming, as I, Jason Agosta, and my good friend, Mike Blackwood delve into his experiences and insights. For over four years, Mike has been a devoted practitioner of this activity, and his passionate stories will make you rethink your leisurely warm bath. We discuss everything from the nitty-gritty of his daily swims, his transformational journey, to the adrenaline rush that cold water swimming has brought him.
Ever wondered how a simple routine can have profound effects on your life? Well, Mike has some intriguing answers. His uplifting accounts of how cold water swims have acted as his 'booster' will definitely pique your curiosity. We also explore Mike's spiritual journey through these swims, as he shares how controlled breathing and the calming effects of cold waters have become his form of meditation.
Don't miss the fascinating conversation around the benefits of this practice. We discuss how cold water swimming influences neurotransmitters like dopamine and nor epinephrine. No need to get your feet wet, just sit back and join us for an engaging delve into the world of cold water swimming.
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The Listening to the Champion Within show, and this is a series about what it takes to be the best you can at whatever you may be pursuing, and we will speak to inspiring people with fascinating stories. I'm Jason Agosta, and thanks for tuning in. Today we are talking cold water swimming, which has become a global phenomena among many and is so popular with the talk of ice bars and the cold water swim and the health benefits, which are many. Here we are discussing the experience of the cold swim today and not the science or physiology, just simply the experience. And here you have two blokes discussing the benefits and what the cold water swim does to us and how it has affected us. I'm joined by Mike Blackwood and we talk about the personal experiences of the cold water swim. So joining me now I have a long time friend of mine from Torquay here in Victoria, australia, mike Blackwood, who is, I have to say, one of my inspirations, because I know that you, mike, have not missed a day of your cold swim.
Speaker 2:Nice to join you, jase. Nice to see your smiling face again.
Speaker 1:Well, from what I know is that it's rare for you to miss one. Can I start by asking you why did you start your cold water swim?
Speaker 2:I think I'm going on now for, I guess, nearly five years, four and a half five years.
Speaker 1:Okay, I wasn't aware it was that long.
Speaker 2:James Bond takes cold showers. I learnt that a while ago. You know the whole Wim Hof thing. Yeah, he's been around forever doing that stuff and he pops up every now and then. He gets traction and everyone talks about it. I saw him somewhere, I can't remember doing it and I'm like what a freak. That's so crazy. I'm not a massive fan of cold. You know surfing in winter is tough and that's with wetsuits and booties. At the time I'm going why would you ever do that? And then, just through someone really close to me that was suffering from anxiety, like really bad, just helping them out. Talking to different people and quite a few people said cold water is really good if you have an anxiety attack, like, stick your hands in ice water, put your head under whatever. You just kind of I don't know the whole. Don't ever ask me all the medical bullshit on this stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, can I just say on that point about the medical side and the physiology side, we're not going into that here. We are talking about the experience of the cold water swimming and trying to bring it to people's lounge rooms. We want to convey that experience, not the physiology because there's so much and it goes.
Speaker 2:honestly, for me it goes in one ear and out the other.
Speaker 1:But there's so much that people don't talk about, about the personable experience.
Speaker 2:Exactly so, helping this person out with the anxiety kind of stuff and reading bits and pieces about it, I was going that's kind of interesting and one of the things that's where I found out about James Bond always had cold showers, by the way. Just reading up on it, things that came out was it makes you feel really good, like it makes you happy, and then people were going you actually smile when you do it. You can't help but kind of smile. I'm going this is kind of weird. Anyway, I can't remember why I did it one day. I was just like I'm going to give it a go. So what happens? One day kind of led to another day and then it just kind of started to become a thing. I can't remember how long I did it for the first time. It wasn't that long, it was maybe two or three weeks or something, and I stopped for some reason and then I was kind of like thinking about it. I was going geez, actually my mornings were like way better.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I get it. You know, I was like so I was like I need to do it again. When I started doing it again, I was like I'm going to take photos of it and I'll record it like a diary thing. You know how people start their days off and they write. You know, this is what I'm keeping honest kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but just on that, though, what I think, if I recall, because I haven't seen for a while you were taking a photo and then saying, okay, air temperature was, like you know, eight degrees, but the real feel was like three, water temperature was like 10 or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's so. I started doing that first and just for my own benefit, because it was just like, oh, it'd be good to see what the water temperature is, what the air temperature is, see how cold I can go. So I did that for a while and then I went. I might as well put it on Instagram, and that's when it became the morning dip, air temperature feels like temperature, wind direction, tide, water clarity and how cold it is, how cold the water is. What time of year did you start? October, I think it was.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's cold.
Speaker 2:So it's cold like out and you know our coldest water. Temperatures are depending on the year, but it's always kind of August, september, october. It's when the water is actually the coldest.
Speaker 1:And we should say to listeners that we're speaking about Victoria. Here in Australia, on the south coast you're in Torquay, I'm on the Morningsend Peninsula.
Speaker 2:Your water is actually a little bit colder than ours.
Speaker 1:It's about 11 degrees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you sit about a degree under us, for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:But our bay side, which is shallow, is actually colder.
Speaker 2:Colder again.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, it's always a degree or two down. Can I ask you when you started, how long would you immerse yourself?
Speaker 2:At least three minutes. I try and do five. Again, I've read different. You know you should do this long and that long and you shouldn't go over this long. I don't know. For me five is about right.
Speaker 1:I start to get and you're just doing it by feel.
Speaker 2:Just by feel.
Speaker 1:On the day. I just feel like this is when I get out and this is when I stay in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done. Before sunrise yeah, the dark ones I don't really like. I don't really enjoy them that much. It's kind of cool, but I'm not scared of the dark. But I'm scared of the dark when I'm in the water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure. It's just oh you know, I know what you're getting at. Who knows what's in there?
Speaker 2:I've been spooked a couple of times by things and I'm just like, oh God, it was like four in the morning and it was like really cold and stuff. I'm walking out in the water and I'm kind of looking around God, jesus, it's quite a peach black. There was just a little bit of moonlight and then all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see this thing flying towards me. I'm like holy shit and I literally screamed in fear and it was a seal, like this baby seal. I was only in waist deep water. I was walking out and the seal came straight at me. I was like, oh my, that was a quick swim, that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was checking you out. Obviously you started doing it and then you obviously felt that the day was starting better and you felt so much better. What else has it done to maintain getting that fix every morning? I?
Speaker 2:think, the main thing and I've said this to you once before maybe this is when I got used to it, because you're doing it, aren't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I haven't done it recently, but I'll get into that in a sec.
Speaker 2:You walk out feeling so much better than when you walk in and it doesn't matter what sort of day you're having, like how you feel. If you feel terrible, you walk out. You still might feel great, but you'll feel better than when you walk in. If you're feeling really good, you're waking up and feeling fresh and stuff you still come out and you're going wow, I feel it Like you feel better, or energized.
Speaker 2:Better everything. I reckon there's a little period right when you get out not so much over summer, because the water's a bit warmer it doesn't have that same effect. I actually prefer doing it in winter when it's colder. But there's a little period, I reckon, when you get out, where there's this little buzz, doesn't matter how cold it is, you don't feel it. You get out and your body's kind of tingling and stuff Tingling yeah, and it almost stings a bit and you just go. There's one bit where you can. It can be freezing cold and I'll always get that bit and I'll turn around and I'll just look at the sunrise a bit longer and stuff. I'll just stand there and it's like how I'm wind cold and you just don't. There's a point there where you don't feel it and then reality kicks in. My feet are like ice blocks. I've got to get to the car.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting you say that and you will find this interesting, this, this chat, because a friend of mine who will be listening, pete Fairweather. He swims every morning over here on the peninsula as well and we'd often meet up in the mornings and, mind you, going back a bit, I did do it for a year. I did not miss one morning for one year and then, for some reason, and I can't tell you why, I just just backed off and I've done it intermittently, which has been an interesting experience, and I don't know why I stopped. I just sort of didn't feel like it.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, but yeah so I remember one morning getting out of the water and I was talking to my buddy Pete, who was walking. He was just about to enter the water and I'd come out and the air temperature was two. It was a real feeler too. The sand was crunching because it was just being iced up and I came out of the water, the wind was blustery and I was staying there talking to him. I said this is so weird, I can't feel the cold.
Speaker 1:And I've been thinking about it and I think that you come out of the water, you've got that tingly sensation which is my marker of when I get out, and sometimes it's like seven, eight, 10 minutes, whatever, and I'm standing on the sand having this chat and then it dawned on me that my body must be radiating some heat and there's almost like this wall or this bit of barrier and I couldn't feel it. But by the time I'd walked back up to the car park, which was just a few minutes, then it's all closed in and then it's like whoa, I am really cold and I wonder. I don't know about the physiology, but I find that time, what you described really like interesting to experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because it's bizarre, it's so strange.
Speaker 2:That's the best bit for me, because I take the photos and I watch the sun. I always try and get there so I see the sun come up. I just like watching the sun come up. Funny that you said that you stopped doing it. I was thinking about that the other day. I wonder if I'll stop on the days that I don't do it, because for a couple of years I was manic about it, like if I went up to Melbourne I would like literally drive and I'd have to be back and talk early. But so I'd get up extra early and I'd drive, yeah, to Port Melbourne or somewhere and just run and jump in and just doing weird stuff, just to make sure I got my fix.
Speaker 1:That's the fix, though it's a fix, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It's like a bit of a rush, because it got to the point where, if I missed a day, I'd be pissed off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd be like I can't believe I didn't do it, but I think that.
Speaker 1:I would say to you that that's a good thing. I mean, people would say, oh, that's so obsessive, and things like that, but I would say what you've developed is a fix on something and that there's a positive drive that comes out of that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, the equivalent to that could be just going for a run. That happens with distance runners and you just got to keep going, you just can't miss, and that's exactly what you're talking about and there's a drive to experience that. Going back to what it does to you, you may have read a little bit I've read some, not a lot, and I'm not really interested in all the things you can read about it as we said, the science and the physiology of it. But there's a lot said about being energised and I think you can definitely feel that the effect on your immune system, I don't know. Calmness, in missing a lot.
Speaker 1:This year I've had this interesting perspective of doing it every morning, getting the fix and being a little bit obsessive or driven to do it. Yeah, craving it. Like I said, staying out of your environment here and then missing a morning and knowing that the morning was the coldest one of the month, drove me insane. I just like so hooked on getting the extreme. But what it taught me also and I've and reflection now of not doing it as much is that calmness that you get from having to breathe consciously and calm yourself down in the water. I found that that would relay from one day to the next. Oh, 100%, and the whole day and everything I did was so much more calm.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that before.
Speaker 2:That's one of the other things is it gives you because, as you said, you know how when you watch someone do it that hasn't done it before yeah and I go in and I jump around and I yell and they're just like oh man, you know Doing all the all the weird stuff that you do when you go into cold water Cuz you're kind of fighting it, but then when you realize that you just got to kind of breathe through it, just go, okay, I'm here now, I've got to deal with it and you figure out the best way to deal with it and it is a really calming thing and that's the, you know, for me. I guess the other benefit of it is it's giving me, I guess calmness is a good word. Yeah, you just kind of I don't worry about things as much as what I used to. I'm just kind of like, you know, and I, you know, I'm not a spiritual kind of or whatever you want to call it person. That's not really my deal.
Speaker 1:I get it, but this has made you draw a little deeper within yourself. Clearly.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's it, yeah it's interesting to do on that because I think you knew you. You've known that I've had bit of an athletic history and one of the things that comes from that is Going deep within yourself and embracing pain and and pushing and just going as deep as you can within yourself. And the really surprising thing with this and what it taught me and you may be surprised to hear this, but I'm sure you can understand this the cold swim taught me to go Deeper than within myself then I'd ever thought I could, but certainly deeper than I ever experienced.
Speaker 1:Yeah and yeah no blew my mind and I thought this self-control and depth that I've reached within myself. I imagine what things may have looked like 30 years ago. Yeah, it may have been. It was just a really interesting perspective.
Speaker 2:There is something about, like you said, you crave just and you and you try and say like you just mentioned before about you will pierce when you miss like the coldest day, kind of thing. It's the same. It's funny because I mean you love those days where it's like dead glass and the sun's coming up and there's not a cloud in the sky. They're just, they're just like great, really beautiful mornings and stuff. But I kind of love it when it's like really fucking cold and the winds howling, it's like howling on the shore and this heat to swell around you and you're feeling Howling, kind of the power of the ocean, you getting smacked on the head by waves every one. That's kind of fun. You kind of go oh, I love those days.
Speaker 1:Which sounds really weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I do. The one thing I wanted to say is because a lot of people ask me this. They're like how funny, you swim? I don't swim at all, I like just Swim out to a bit float around. I'd literally just float and look around. We, when I first started doing it so you know, four or five years ago I was literally the only one doing it on the beach. I mean, there was a, there was the odd others there was. There's a bunch of old boys that have always swam at talky point, if you go out with his mates, and another guy down at the fishing club, bulldog, he used to go in. No one even knew, but just hardcore kind of yeah, so you say there's more and more people.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's groups of really honestly there would be 30 people a morning really okay.
Speaker 1:I do find it interesting that different times.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people who and you may have had the same thing that a lot of people have said to me oh, I'm gonna come down with you one morning people Express that they really want to do it. They never do, yeah, they never come down, they never turn up, yeah, and you never see them through the day even. But yeah, but so many people have that thought process of like it's something that they really want to do and I find that interesting that there is there's an attraction to it, and it obviously even more so once you start there's a few people going, I'll come do it With you one morning.
Speaker 2:There's a few people that have, but like doing it on my own? Yeah, you need space. That's part of the other thing is just breathe, watch the Sun come up. Yeah, I have a little time go.
Speaker 1:okay, ready for the day, let's, let's go now I do know that there are studies that show that the cold can reduce your inflammatory markers and one of the conversations I had With Pete Fairweather, who I mentioned, who swims every morning here at right, was saying to me that he was living on Panadol and Neurofen because of the pain in his body and being, you know, pretty physical work over his time. When we're having this discussion on the beach, one morning he was saying to me that he does not feel any pain, he has no aching, no pain in his body, which he felt was riddled after doing it so consistently for a year and then sort of backing off this year. I can tell you now the difference Physically is incredible. Yeah, stiffness, sawness, and I never had any of those things, not even come close to now I get it.
Speaker 1:So have you had that experience, from a Physical point of view, of what it's done to you?
Speaker 2:big day at work with containers coming in or whatever and feeling really sore like this. There's definitely an effect, feeling when you Again, particularly when it's nice and cold. Yeah, we just go off. That actually feels good.
Speaker 1:It's interesting how this trend has just this has been a global trend and now it's been highly commercialized. Yeah, and I do look at the ice baths and the you know those blow up bins and people pour ice into it, and sure it must be. You know, it's like zero degrees or one or something like that, compared to like 10 or 11. That we're swimming, yeah, that experience of jumping in the ocean, yeah, as you've described, and what we're both experiencing, yeah, completely different experiences. Just immersing in these little tub and sitting still, yeah, and and people say, oh well, it's not as no bird near as cold as the taba or whatever. Yeah, the elements combined are harsh and I wouldn't say it's harder, but there are different things to contend with and deal with. It's got to be a totally different experience.
Speaker 2:Like that ice baths. If you've just got cold water, bags of ice and stuff, it's about Seven or eight degrees. Guys like Jamie Mitchell, the paddler and stuff, I see sometimes he's got like the full freezer Freezes over and they're like smashing it, the ice to get through to the thing. You know that's when it's like probably four degrees or something like that. That's full on. I haven't done it. I've done a few ice baths. Don't know whether the ice bath thing is Is, is calming. There's something, like you said, about being outside in the ocean, walking across the grass, walking across the sand. Yeah, when it comes summer and the water's not even that cold, you know, you know it's. You know, am I getting the same benefits? I like that thing of, just like I said, walking across the grass, walking across the sand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a whole regime of it, are you? Do you find that you're sort of preparing mentally before you, even you know, head off You're trying to bring yourself down and get your breathing just conscious and that composure a little bit.
Speaker 2:I think I've kind of following Wim Hof again. I've been, I've started doing a lot of his breathwork stuff and breath holds and so I'm much more conscious. When I did, I did a underwater Breathing with Nam Baldwin and he taught me how breathing so important to your controlling your heartbeat and stuff. So I've been way more comfort, way more conscious, like you know the way I breathe and stuff.
Speaker 1:So so you're a lot more controlled. Yeah, so much more controlled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't run in and and go straight under, but I don't kind of muck around and I okay. I don't stand there In my up to my waist. I kind of get in pretty quick, but it's not like I run and dive under, but I get under. Make sure I get my head under pretty quick. For some reason I found anyway that if I don't put my head under I'm like way colder, like my body feels colder. I can calm myself down, sort my breathing out as soon as I go under the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once once my head's under and I come up and I'm like pretty settled. Sure, I'm not kind of you know, just trying to slow my breath down at any one point or whatever.
Speaker 1:So do you think that that's a crucial thing for someone listening is gonna go, yeah, I'm gonna do this now I've been talking about and thinking about for so long, I'm gonna do this. Do you think that that control of breathing, particularly initially when you have that initial gasp, do you think that that is something that is important to focus on? That initial gasp is like it's a like a reaction, but we've got to keep that reaction down. Do you think that part of it is important?
Speaker 2:the breathing part of it is like Absolutely the most important part of it. You know, slow, steady Calming. For me anyway, it's just like trying to keep the breath consistent, kind of get my heart rate to slow down a bit, because initially it kind of, you know, it's trying to warm your body up so it's probably your heart's probably gone mad. The calmer you are, the easier it is.
Speaker 1:You just remind me of. I'm not sure whether you've seen it, but there's a great movie and for everyone anyone listening you have to see. It's on Netflix. It's a movie called the ice dive With about Joanna Nordstrom. I think she's in the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she had a mountain bike or a motorbike incident and her leg was just ruined and she had so much Neuropathic pain and then she learnt that, immersing her legs in the ice pool which is looked like it was just in the backyard of her house, and Just freezes over in winter and she went home and she worked out that her leg pain was Resolving so she started just swimming and it's the most incredible video and it's like she brought the world record, I think, for the longest swim underwater.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but every time I jump in the cold water mark in the morning, I always think of her and think this is nothing compared to that woman. This is 11 and 12 degrees. I can do this. I always think of her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's an amazing movie.
Speaker 1:I think the things we've spoken about. One, this cold water swimming gives you a relaxation that it seems like it's pretty unattainable doing a lot of other things.
Speaker 2:I can't meditate, you know people go. Oh, I should not just can't?
Speaker 1:yeah, I did. I was gonna ask you whether you meditate, because this is a form of meditation really but yeah, from, for me this is what it is like.
Speaker 2:I can kind of get you know. At times I can get lost if I meditate, I'm like Distracted and distracted. You know people go, it doesn't matter. You know thought comes in, a thought goes out.
Speaker 1:I think it is because it requires your full attention and you are training your mind and body, if I put that right.
Speaker 2:That's why I kind of like it when it's a bit colder, like once the water gets over, like 15, it's not that hard, whereas I think that thing of where you just really focusing on kind of your breath and Just that feeling of the cold like I did, that feeling of colds and I don't even know how to describe it it's a good feeling.
Speaker 1:So there's this. It's really interesting, isn't it, that there's this calming effect and obviously you know it is training your mind and body in the breathing and bringing yourself down to a more relaxed level. But that calming effect just goes on from one day to the next and to the next. And, yeah, that consistency. It's incredible how that just realized from day to day and I never realized that was actually happening until I stopped for a period of time. And also this you know we're talking about the physical saunas which I was talking about. My friend and I Think that's a really important Sort of factor that comes out of it, one of the things I can feel when I stay in and get that Tingly, stinging feeling which is sort of like like tells me that yeah, okay, it's time to get out, and it does vary when that comes on. But I was saying to that feels like there's is unbelievably deep Anti-inflammatory effect and I don't know what I, whether I'm right and describing that, but that's what it feels like.
Speaker 1:I've realized that even more now that I think that might be what's happening. It's just like almost a resetting and shutting down of of inflammatory response well, that's.
Speaker 2:You know. If you get in to, I guess, all the Medical and the science side of it, that's where they kind of all go with it. And that's why I kind of like Wim Hof, because he doesn't, you know He'll talk about dope means and all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day you, when you watch it, he's just the craziest cat ever. You know. It's just going, it just feels good, it's good. That's it makes you feel good. It's just everything's about you. Yeah, you know his breath works pretty interesting too, since I've started doing that. So do that of a morning as well.
Speaker 1:Which involves what exactly?
Speaker 2:so it's like a process of between kind of 30 and 40 really deep inhalations full inhale, not a full exhale so you do that like 30 or 40 times and then on the exhale which goes against kind of everything that I knew, as you know, trying to hold my breath as a kid so on the exhale you hold to breath and then you hold for as long as you can and Then you take a breath in, hold it for 15 seconds and then that's one round and then you start again. That's been amazing, but it's amazing how long you can hold your breath for and be really calm about it, and that's a really good thing too, for just again, it just makes you really clear.
Speaker 1:You know, all of these things really teach us how to push past our limits. That we think we have done, oh for sure. Like it's kind of astonishing that you can actually put yourself in that place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because every time you do around you go first. You can hold longer and longer. So you might the first one, you might. You know what for me I'll do like a minute 20 or a minute 30 or something, and then the next one's like a minute 45 or whatever, and then the next one's like two minutes or whatever, and it gets it. The more you keep Putting oxygen into your body, the longer you can hold your breath for yeah, yeah, does that?
Speaker 1:is that as calming as the cold water time, do you think?
Speaker 2:No, they're really different. Okay, the cold, the cold water thing. For me is the calming, the, the breath thing. Even though it is kind of calming, it actually is a bit of Energy kind of thing. Yeah, okay, it kind of. That's. What I found is like it's a good, it's a really good combination.
Speaker 1:I, like many others I have no doubt, have been inspired by what we've seen and you taking photos and just going for that swim every single morning has been unbelievably inspiring and it just how you have shown many people I've no doubt about this that you can do these things and push past your limits. But what we know is from the experience and again district, with no disregard to science and the physiology, but not Bringing that to this platform is that there is so much to experience from it and so many benefits and you just Really it's hard to put into words Hopefully we've done some tonight, but it's hard to put into words the actual, true experience really.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you're letting us into your little journey.
Speaker 1:It's been fantastic.
Speaker 2:My pleasure. You need to get back in there.
Speaker 1:I will. It's a, as I said, it's a really strange thing. I just haven't felt like it for some reason. And then it's interesting that we're doing this this week, because it was only yesterday I really deeply felt like, yeah, it's, I'm back on this week. I and yeah, I just, I know I can't tell you why, but just this intuitive feeling that I sort of didn't feel it, but now I feel like, yeah, I'm back in there.
Speaker 2:But that's probably a good thing. I think you've got to go with what you feel if it's not working for you.
Speaker 1:You know, I know we've had this chat very superficially in the past, but I was really keen to get your sort of deeper feelings about the whole thing. For those of you thinking about it, we can only encourage you to take a look at as we spoke of. Have a go, yeah, and, but don't disregard the importance of you know either, before, during and after of the breathing and putting yourself into a beautiful place.
Speaker 2:Turn the heater on before you leave to go for a swim. So you got a nice warm house and come back to. That's important.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your insights and.
Speaker 2:No worries.
Speaker 1:You do this again and because I'm really interested in the journey of what it does for you and others once they start or stop, and keeping it going for many, many years, inspiring, and I really, really thank you.
Speaker 2:My pleasure mate.
Speaker 1:As mentioned. Just have a go. The benefits are amazing and, importantly, it will teach you total self control. I'll give you a bit of physiology to finish off with, though. There is some evidence of increases in peripheral catacolamine concentration, which are hormones. Much of this evidence is derived from full body emergence in water temperature of less than 15 degrees for five minute durations. Catacolamines include dopamine nor epinephrine, which are the principal neurotransmitters that mediate a variety of central nervous system functions, such as motor control, your thought processing, emotions, memory and endocrine modulation. Thanks for listening, and next up I'll be speaking with Sarah Jamison, who has been one of Australia's best ever 1500 metre runners and a triple Olympian. Tune in, and I'll speak to you soon.
